Chapter One Hundred and Eighteen - Breaking Fast

The thing I was hugging shifted, and that was enough to tear me out of a pleasant dream that was instantly forgotten.

Blinking grubby eyes open, I found myself staring at a dimly lit green... thing. It was big, that was obvious. I had one leg over its side and both arms wrapped around it in a hug.

It took stretching my neck up and following the green thing up to a big green rump for me to put two and two together. I was hugging Cholondee’s tail.

That was probably rather rude. But the dragoness didn’t seem to mind. She was slumped over on her side, the mountain of pillows she was on bending her back awkwardly. Her forearms were up in the air and her mouth was wide open. She looked a bit like a sleepy puppy.

I pulled back and rolled over, pillows squishing under me until I was turned around. My other friends were all laid out across the floor. Awen nearby, with her nightgown pulled up a scandalous amount, Amaryllis was a little ways away, head tucked into her armpit and legs splayed out above her, and Booksie was sleeping on her tummy, bum in the air so that her little tail stuck way out.

Smiling, I wobbled up to my feet, then rubbed at the side of my face. There was no way to tell the time, but I had the impression it was morning. That, and my back was a bit sore. Hopping out of the pillow-pile, I landed some ways away, then stretched up and down a little bit.

It was a good thing I wasn’t old, or else my back would be all painful.

Cholondee was the next to wake up. She snorted, blinked a few times, then shifted her head around until it was upright, even though the rest of her wasn’t. Further proof that dragons were cool.

“Oh, is it morning already?” she asked.

The dragoness didn’t do much to keep her voice down, which meant that all the others woke up one at a time.

“Yup!” I said. “At least, I think so. It’s time to get up and face the day! Oh, and breakfast.”

The dragon murmured something that sounded approving and twisted until she started to roll.

Awen squeaked and leapt out of her path, crashing onto some pillows lower down while Cholondee got to all fours. “Breakfast!” she said.

“Do you have anything we can eat?” I asked. “And a washroom?”

“Hrm? Nope. I don’t think we have either of those,” the dragoness said. “We could go down to the city. I haven’t actually set claw there in... ah, must be years now.”

“We need to get dressed first!” I said.

“Ah, yeah, you do that. I’ll be at the cave entrance.” The dragoness yawned and stomped her way out of the room, only pausing to rub the side of a claw next to her eye to remove the sleep gunk.

I moved over to the dressers, found my things, and started dressing. The others soon joined me, and I got to watch Amaryllis go through the delicate process of stuffing her wings through the arms of her jacket.

When we were all more or less dressed, I eyed the mess we’d made of the room, then fired a heavy burst of cleaning magic which... did nothing for the torn pillows. But it did freshen things up, so I called it a win. “Ready to go?” I asked.

“You are too cheerful,” Amaryllis said. “Please tone it down to about... half.”

“Never!” I said before glomping her. “I just need to rub some of my good mood onto you.” I rubbed my cheek against hers until she shoved me off.

“Idiot.”

“Awa, Broccoli isn’t an idiot.”

Amaryllis stared at Awen. “Have you seen the way she acts?”

“I, I like the way she acts,” Awen said. That earned her a hug.

“That’s because you’re an idiot too,” Amaryllis said. She did seem to be in a better mood though, so I counted that as a point for Broccoli.

We arrived at the front of the cavern hall in due time to find that there was not one, but two dragons waiting for us. Rhawrexdee was glaring at his sister who wore a proud grin right back. “You finally got here,” Cholondee said. “Just in time to see this big lug embarrass himself.”

“What are you saying?” Rhawrexdee asked. “Are you talking poorly about me? I know that look in your eyes. I swear if you ruin this for me, I’m telling mom.”

Cholondee turned to her brother and scoffed. “What are you, a hatchling? Do you need mom for everything?”

“I don’t need her to beat the idiocy out of you,” Rhawrexdee said. The air around him crackled and snapped.

“Hey! Hey! Wait!” I called out, arms waving around for attention as I bounced between the two dragons. “There’s no need for a spat. Cholondee, don’t be too mean. And Rhawrexdee, she was just greeting us.”

Rhawrexdee huffed. “Fine. I swear I’m going to spend the next decade learning common so that you can’t play any tricks on me.”

“Oh? You’re not going to learn it so that you can whisper sweet nothings to your girlfriend?” Cholondee asked.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Rhawrexdee said.

“She might never be once she hears that,” Cholondee said.

Rhawrexdee set his legs. “Are you determined to test me?”

“Yup!” Cholondee said.

I fired off two balls of cleaning magic that booped each dragon in the chest. They flinched back and turned to stare at me. “Can’t we all just be nice to each other?” I asked. “We should get breakfast. After we’ve eaten I’m sure we’ll all feel a lot nicer.”

Cholondee rubbed at her chest with a claw. “Was that cleaning magic?” she asked.

“Uh. Yes?”

“Do it again.”

I blinked, then with a shrug fired another little ball of it towards her. It smacked her claw and did a lot of nothing. “Oh, can you see this sheen? It looks like it was polished.” Cholondee held up her claw to the sun and turned it this way and that. “You can ride on me today. You need to cover me in that magic. I’m going to shine like freshly minted gold. But green, which is the best colour.”

“Sure!” I said. “I’d love to ride you. Will my friends go with Rhawrexdee?”

“I suppose I can allow the others to come with me,” Rhawrexdee said magnanimously.

“I could carry two more...” Cholondee said. “Maybe... I could carry that other bun?”

“Try me,” Rhawrexdee growled.

I left the two to their teasing for a bit as I gathered my friends and our things. Orange was napping in Amaryllis’ jacket and Awen was holding onto my pack for me while Booksie was shifting from foot to foot. I told them what was going on, and soon we were all climbing into a dragon’s big foreclaws. Awen and I got to ride pressed up against Cholondee while the others went with Rhawrexdee.

Being held by a dragon wasn’t nearly as awesome as riding on a dragon’s back, but it also felt a whole heck of a lot safer.

Lawlyhoumad’s lair was only a hop and a skip away from Port Royal, so within only a few minutes we--or rather, our dragon friends--were circling above the city and watching the homes and panicked people flash past below.

I caught sight of Booksie pointing towards part of the city a moment before Rhawrexdee angled his wings and came gliding to a graceful stop in a big square. Sure, he tore the head off a statue with his tail, but none of the people screaming for dear life and hopping away seemed to mind that.

Cholondee came for a much more hover-y landing behind her brother, then lowered her claws. “Hop off, we’re not made to stand on our rear like this,” she said.

Grinning, I jumped off the dragon and then helped Awen down.

The square was rather nice, with some shops lining every side and a couple of cozy cafes next to old stone buildings with red roofs. The smell was... Port Royal’s, with a mix of sulphur and poop that had my nose wrinkling, but there were some faint traces of baked goods and cooked meats in the air.

Blue-roofed shops with big awnings hid trembling customers, most of them grenoil, but there were a few humans and harpies mixed in for good measure. I waved to one such group but that just had them cowering even more.

“So, where do we go for breakfast?” I wondered aloud.

“Ah, I know a place just down that street,” Booksie said as she pointed down one of the--fortunately--wider roads. “It’s a little family-owned place. I know the owners, I’m sure they’d let us all eat outside, and there’s a butcher’s shop not too far away.”

“A butcher’s shop?” I asked.

“For Rhawr and Cholondee,” Booksie explained.

“Ohh, using pet names already,” Cholondee asked.

Booksie turned to face the other direction to hide her flush, but it didn’t work so well when her ears were ramrod straight and glowing under their fluff. “Follow me!”

We walked, and stomped, as a group down the thoroughfare meeting very little by way of traffic. I had to hold back giggles at the wide-eyed looks we were getting from the locals as they saw two dragons walking down the middle of the street.

The place Booksie brought us to was a nice little restaurant, tucked in between two bigger residential buildings. Its little wooden sign, the Rustless Spoon, dangled above a cheery blue door that hid a small room with four little tables and a dozen seats.

An older, matronly grenoil woman was behind the counter, setting things up for the morning when all the smaller members of our party stepped in. “Hello, welcome to ze... Booksie?”

“Hello,” Booksie said. “It’s been a bit.”

“Oh, sweetie, I zought ze Morepoles had run you out of town. It’s so good to see you!” She stepped out from behind the counter and raised her arms for a hug. She was a bit short, so Booksie had to bend down for it.

“I brought some friends I found,” Booksie said. “Um, we’re all kind of hungry, but we can’t eat in here. Would it be a bother if we brought some chairs out?”

“Outside? Ah, but ze stink will ruin ze meal,” the old grenoil said.

“Some of my friends won’t fit in your shop,” Booksie said.

Cholondee chose that moment to peek through the window, her eye taking up most of the frame. “Do they make dragon-sized portions here?” she asked.

“Ah,” the grenoil matron said. She stood rooted on the spot for a long time.

“It’s okay,” I said. “They’re friendly... ish. We decided to all come and help Booksie with her Port Royal problems.”

“You brought a dragon to take care of street ruffians?” the grenoil asked. “Ah, I would not want to be one of zose Morepoles today. Take any chair you want dearie. I’m going to come out once my heart remembers zat it’s too old to be beating zis fast.”

“Thank you,” Booksie said with a bow of her head.

Soon we were outside, setting four chairs along one side of a table that Amaryllis and I lugged out. Our dragon companions settled on the road across from us, effectively blocking the entire path. I felt a bit bad, but not bad enough to do anything about it. There were hardly any dragon-appropriate accommodations around, what were they supposed to do?

“There’s a butcher’s shop just around the corner,” Booksie said. “Does one of you want to help me?”

“Awen, you go,” Amaryllis said. “Broccoli will deal with the guards. And I’ll chaperone Rhawrexdee here.”

“The guards?” I asked.

“Those guards.”

I followed where Amaryllis long talon was pointing to a large gathering of plate-mailed grenoils with feathered helmets.

“Oh,” I said. “I hope this doesn’t take too long. I’m really getting hungry.”

“We could always eat the guards,” Cholondee suggested.

I was beginning to think that maybe bringing the dragons to Port Royal was a bad idea.